What’s All This About Weightlifting Shoes?

Having been a recreational weight lifter for over 15 years I can tell you that nothing you take to the gym is more important than the right footwear. This is especially true when you are working out with free weights. Those big lifts you perform in the gym such as squats, deadlifts, power cleans, jerks and leg presses all have one thing in common… the power starts at your feet.

You wouldn’t try to do a bench press with baseball gloves on your hands would you? Then why are so many people going to the gym wearing sneakers, trainers or even worse… running shoes!  You need a solid base from which to start your power transfer and shoes with soft soles will rob you of both power and stability. With proper shoes your feet and legs are not shifting with the shoe, as they would in soft soled shoes, and you can better create consistent and reliable results in your lifts.

So What Makes a Good Weightlifting Shoe?

Good question. Bodybuilders and weight lifters alike have been seen wearing anything from Chuck Taylor’s to combat boots in the gym. But here recently the idea of a weight training specific shoe is really starting to catch on. Good weightlifting shoes create a stable base for you to start and finish your lifts on.  They do this by having very solid soles, usually made of hard rubber or a wood block coated in rubber. They also fit very tight on your foot, usually having one or more straps, providing support all the way around the foot. The shoes should also be made solid and durable, no cheap stitching or cutting corners with cheap materials.

Which Shoes Are the Best?

Weightlifting shoes come in two varieties, more or less. There are flat shoes with hard soles and lifted shoes with slightly raised heel. Which type has an advantage over the other depends on what lift the athlete is performing and what muscle group they are concentrating on. For instance, a raised heel is great for squats as it will force the lifter forward slightly requiring them to push up AND back when raising their body. This requires that the lifter use perfect form in their squat, it also places more emphasis on the quadriceps muscles helping to build those massive tree trunk thighs.

On the other hand, when you are performing “pressing” exercises such as a leg press, you may not want that extra emphasis on your quads. In this case a flatter sole would be more appropriate. As a cheap alternative I use Chuck Taylors or a good pair of wrestling shoes for these types of lifts, although it is a pain to change my shoes mid-workout.

As you can see, it almost sounds like you would need two pairs of shoes in the gym, one set for Olympic type lifts and another for more basic exercises. Enter the hybrid. These shoes are usually made with just a slightly raised heel and work great for all styles of lifting.